A relatively recent advance in the electronic processing of financial transactions has been the utilization of compact credit card readers that incorporate touch screen assemblies or the like for simultaneously reading account information from credit card magnetic strips, and optically verifying the signature of the card holder. Such devices have found wide popularity in a variety of retail settings.
In order to most comfortably accommodate users of such devices, monitor stands have been developed for operably mounting such devices to countertops or the like. As such, certain mounting assemblies incorporate pivoting and rotating mechanisms therein so that the electronic visual display portions of such monitors may be conveniently visible to users of various size.
Mounting assemblies developed to date, however, either incorporate permanently fixed orientations or have relatively expensive mechanisms for providing movable parts to the overall assembly. Moreover, assemblies incorporating movable parts fail to provide adjustment mechanisms so that the user may adjust the degree of resistance to movement of such movable parts that is desired. In addition, current mounting assemblies fail to incorporate locking mechanisms for releasably locking respective movable portions thereof in desired orientations.
Although the above-stated problems occur most frequently in assemblies being utilized in combination with credit card reading systems, a variety of other display stand applications exists wherein the mechanisms of the present invention provide added effectiveness.
It is therefore a principal object of the present invention to provide a monitor mounting apparatus that enables the selective adjustment of resistance to rotational movement between a rotatably secured monitor mounting plate and a fixed base.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a means for selectively adjusting resistance to rotational movement between respective moving parts in a monitor mounting stand that incorporate a central bore through which electrical wires and the like may be operably threaded.
It is a still further object of the present invention to provide a monitor mounting apparatus that incorporates a monitor mounting plate that is selectively pivoted with respect to a fixed base, and which further includes a locking mechanism for operably and selectively locking the monitor mounting plate in one or more predetermined pivot positions.